Catch of the day!
Reactions come quickly sometimes. It might be to correct our car from going into the opposite lane. It might be to pull our hand away from a burning flame. Sometimes we have just a moment to catch that fleeting sunset or sunrise in a light that we cannot describe. The kind painters strive all their lives to capture. When it is over we give a sigh of relief. Whew! Well, I have been striving to catch Old Man River up close and in motion for some time. I had such a moment this weekend.
A patch of white catches my eye as I glance out the back door towards my dock while enroute to a cup of coffee. I look closer and see that Old Man River, the venerable Great Blue Heron of Broward River, is standing in the grass straight out in front of my dock. But what is that patch of white? Grabbing the binocular, there indeed are some old white neck feathers sticking through the grey, but the big white patch is a huge fish he has just pulled out of the marsh. He is just standing there holding it. Amazed at his catch it appears. I think, hold that moment Old Man (the bird that is, not me). I grab my camera, switching it on as I raise it up to focus. He’s gone already! Zooming to the left I see him flying off down the Broward to enjoy his dinner in peace. I only get two clicks of the doohickey off. But it’s just enough. Whew!
In the book of Genesis account of creation, we are told that on the fifth day God filled the seas and skies with the fish and the fowl and said it was good. Specifically, verse 21 says: “And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.” Old Man River and his whale of a catch certainly made a believer out of me today. And it was good. Whew! Be blessed. Harry
Catch of the day. Old Man River heads upriver to dine in peace.
And it was good. Whew!